You can check Ebay to see how much people are paying for them in the completed listings. Laptops from the era are mostly $50 or less, but desktops fetch more from my recent perusing.

In my opinion, the 486 is not yet a valued collectible. The hard-to-get stuff is much older and even then hobbyists are still able to get a lot of vintage material cheaply. However, this is always subject to what is known as vicissitude.

Projecting the trend for the value of vintage computers, the parts and peripherals is difficult. It is not the same as restoring an old bicycle or writing desk. It requires specialized knowledge that fewer and fewer people in the future will have low enthusiasm for - e.g. understanding DOS. However, it is not quite the same to parcel old computers as one would with vintage televison or radio, which vary greatly in their value to the few people who collect these devices.

What is important, is that of the X86 processor group fitted computers, the 486 is the easiest to set up and get working on the internet owing to the fact most can fit old ethernet cards for a broadband connection - this makes it sort of useful as well as fun. That said, it is text-based connectivity at best to be strived for - which is not as old-fashioned as many people think.

I would keep it if you can. As for hobbyist value - still marginal. General public value - near zero.

I have a 486DX that has 8 MB RAM. I have Windows 95, that works ok. The office package (Word, Excel...) and Deepburner. It can burn CD & DVD -R -RW. I want to try to connect that computer to the Internet with a modem.

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